September 16, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- As the realms of media and entertainment continue to converge with technology, joining traditional mediums of television and radio with broadband streaming, a rising and unprecedented demand for content delivery networks has emerged.
In fact, broadband as a distribution system has become so popular that Web-based companies like Amazon and AOL are no longer simply taking on third-party content to distribute, but are producing offline content of their own.
AOL's Web stream of the poverty-relief concert Live 8 events on July 9 surpassed MTV's cable broadcasts, attracting over five million viewers and 175,000 simultaneous video streams.
That same month, Nine Systems (ninesystems.com) partnered with Amazon.com (amazon.com) to help the major e-tailer stream and handle the delivering of its 10th anniversary concert, which featured performances by music stars Bob Dylan and Norah Jones. The two companies had previously worked together on Amazon.com's promotion for the latest Harry Potter book.
Prior to selecting Nine Systems as its CDN, Amazon.com scoured the market, finally deciding that Nine System's content delivery platform and rich media management tools would provide the most customizable solution for its event.
In addition to delivering live and on-demand video and audio, Nine Systems also delivers dynamic Web sites and online applications to millions of end-users worldwide. However, rather than rely on a proprietary network of servers like most CDNs, Nine Systems deploys a complex technological system that relies on two key components.
First, its Network of Networks provides a unique open framework that routes rich media content through its CDN and across other top-tier worldwide CDNs.
Second, its Stream OS is a group of configurable rich media management tools that enables Nine Systems to publish rich media to the Web, and allows for detailed usage reports, ad insertion, rights management and e-commerce.
"[Amazon.com] had the peace of mind knowing that the actual delivery would go off without a hitch because of our Network of Networks technology and our own content delivery network and the route content of our third-party networks giving us a greater capacity and product global reach to our end-users," says Kit Knox, chief technology officer of Nine Systems.
By enriching Amazon.com's site content and delivering a full content delivery service, Nine Systems helped to significantly increase Amazon.com's site traffic during the promotion.
"Amazon had set up quite a few number of test users monitoring this actual live event and the feedback of the actual reception of the event was very positive," says Knox.
The event was such a success that the two are discussing the possibility of working on more events in the future.
